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vide

Etymology and origin of the French word vide

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1100, Chanson de Roland
Inherited from
Latin *vocitus
Ultimate origin
Latin (vacō)

Pronunciation

Forms

vide (plural vides)[1] Old French masculine vuit, feminine voide, vuide, vuide was the usual spelling until the 17th century and vide became official with the Académie of 1762.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is the Old French feminine vuide, which ousted the masculine “vuit” by the 15th century,[4][1] inherited from Vulgar Latin *vocitus (“empty”),[5][2][4][6] from “*vocuus”, an archaic variant of classical Latin vacuus (“empty; vacant”),[2][3] related to vacō (“to be empty”).[2][7] Littré first derived it from Latin viduus (“bereft”) and then accepted “*vocitus”, proposed by Schuchardt and Thomsen.[8]

Cognate with Italian vuoto, Old Occitan voig and Catalan buit.[9][8] Compare English void.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has voide place “empty ground”, and also voide tere for land lying fallow.[5][2][8]

Semantic evolution

In the 12th–13th centuries vide de meant “devoid of” (Wace), and the adjective was used of a place without people and of the ventre vide (about 1200).[5][2] Le chief ai vuit (Roman de Renart) is a light head from fatigue or hunger, and, from the 13th century tête vide a head without ideas;[5][2] figuratively it meant “lacking substance” (Brunetto Latini's foi wide).[5] Les mains vuides “empty-handed” is in Amyot (1559).[5]

As a noun, le vide was a philosophical term for empty space in Oresme (about 1377), and Pascal's Expériences nouvelles touchant le vuide (1647) made it a term of physics, the vacuum.[5][2] Pascal also used it for a feeling of emptiness.[5] From 1675 it named open space, and in mountaineering the void below a climber (1868).[5][10] Ensemble vide, the empty set, is from 1960.[5][11]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Voide place in the Chanson de Roland.[5]
  • c. 1200 – Le ventre vit, le chief vuit.[5]
  • c. 1377 – Vuide “empty space” in Oresme.[5]
  • 1559 – Les mains vuides in Amyot.[5]
  • 1647 – Pascal's experiments on the vacuum.[5]
  • 1762 – The spelling vide in the Académie.[2]
  • 1960 – Ensemble vide.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Empty: une boîte vide, un verre vide, les mains vides: empty-handed.[11][12]
  2. Unoccupied, deserted; unfurnished: un appartement vide.[12][1]
  3. Vide de: devoid of: vide de sens.[5][1]
  4. Empty, meaningless: une vie vide, un regard vide.[12][5]
  5. (mathematics) Ensemble vide: the empty set.[11][5]

Noun

  1. (physics) A vacuum: emballé sous vide.[5][1]
  2. Empty space, the void: se pencher au-dessus du vide.[12][1]
  3. A gap, blank; an empty place: combler un vide.[12]
  4. A feeling of emptiness: un grand vide.[5][1]
  5. À vide: empty, idling: tourner à vide.[1]

Word family

  • vidange
  • dévider
  • évider
  • vide-poches
  • vider
  • videur
  • vidage
  • videuse
  • vacant
  • vacuité
  • Latin vacuus
  • English void

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 589a
  7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  11. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  12. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Vide.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/vide. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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